Documented Police Brutality

This page takes the time to go through some local high profile cases involving police killing +/or attacking people with little to no reason, & their weak or zero accountability after the investigation. These are just some, of the endless situations, that aren’t often talked about.

——————————————————————————————————–

Incomplete list of those Murdered by Vancouver Police

Christopher Lewis Ray – October 29th, 2012 – Shot to death by Vancouver Police on the 400 block of Skeena st. in the early evening.

Paul Boyd – August 13, 2007 – Shot to death, in the head, execution style while on his hands & knees by VPD constable Lee Chipperfield.

Gerard Samuel Chenery – December 26th, 2004 – Shot to Death 12 times by a vpd constable.

Robert Wayne Bagnell – June 23,2004 – Tasered to death by VPD officers.

Roman Andreichikov – May 1, 2004 – Tasered to death by a Vancouver cop while three officers were on top of him.

Frank Paul – December 6, 1998 – dragged from police station while unconscious and dumped in an alley where he froze to death.

——————————————————————————————————–

^ On June 9th 2010, a DTES beat cop -Const. Taylor Robinson- is caught on a surveillance camera, in an unprovoked attack, pushing a 98 pound Sandy Davidsen to the ground, stopping to stare at her for a few seconds as she’s lying on the sidewalk, then continuing west down E. Hastings St as though nothing had happened. In the video you can see 3 VPD officers walking abreast, taking up much of the sidewalk, literally forcing people to move aside for them as they “make their rounds”. This woman, who has cerebral palsy, couldn’t make it out of their way in time, and was attacked by one of the officers for getting in his way. This is a common occurrence in the DTES, where the people are subject to daily harassment and brutality by police and other predators. The next day he was still roaming the streets of the DTES, and any potential reprimands would wait, pending an “internal investigation”

Seven months later, New Westminster Police recommend an assault charge that was later approved by the crown against Const. Taylor Robinson, who is now on “desk duty”. Davidsen’s lawyer said, “It rarely happens this way….Police say something happened, a citizen says something else happened and it tends to be the word of the police that is believed. In this case the videotape doesn’t lie and it shows exactly what happened.”

A good example of this is the case of Yao Wei Wu -featured below- who was assaulted by police when they arrived at the wrong address, pulled him from his house, and beat him on his doorstep for several minutes. They claimed he had resisted arrest which warranted him for a beating, Wu says he didn’t have time to resist or even identify himself before he was pulled outside and assaulted. After changing their tune in several contradicting press releases-and after an internal investigation-Delta Police find the officers did nothing wrong.

Sandy filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal and has filed a lawsuit against Robinson in provincial small claims court, claiming $25,000 in damages.

——————————————————————————————-

^Jan 21, 2010-Yao Wei Wu brutally beaten By 2 VPD officers (Nicholas Florkow & Bryan London) after they went to the wrong door during a domestic abuse call. Immediately upon answering the door, and before being identified, Wu, was pulled outside by the plain clothes officers and brutally assaulted by them for several minutes on his doorstep before being cuffed. When a bystander told the cops that Wu had done nothing wrong, they allegedly “restrained him in handcuffs also”. After the case went public and in their defense, the officers involved alleged Wu was resisting arrest. Quickly afterwards, police chief Jim Chu recanted those statements of the officers regarding the allegations of him resisting arrest, that they were wrong, and apologized to Wu in person. An investigation was launched and 9 months later the results were, not surprisingly, in favor of the two officers that assaulted Mr. Wu. In March, Wu filed a lawsuit against the two officers, the City of Vancouver, and the Corporation of Delta who did the internal investigation.

^“I was beaten by the police for no reason at the door of my home in the morning on January 21 this year. The matter was investigated for over 9 months, and the investigation report says that the police had reason to beat me, that I was beaten by the police because I resisted arrest and failed to co-operate, and that I fell and injured my eye,” Wu said. “This is absolutely a distortion of the facts!” he added, according to a Chinese translation of his statement. Mr. Wu suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his knees, legs and back. The Vancouver Police also issued a statement today, noting: “It was unfortunate that our officers had the wrong address and also that Mr. Wu, as we now have learned, saw the officers’ badges but unfortunately felt that he had to resist them.”

At 8:18 p.m. on December 5, 1998 Frank Joseph Paul, a 47-year-old New Brunswick Mi’Kmaq First Nations man living in Vancouver, was arrested in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver by two Vancouver police officers for being intoxicated in a public place. He was transported to the Vancouver Police Department’s jail facility at 312 Main Street. Several minutes later he was removed from the lockup, placed into a police van, and left in an alleyway in East Vancouver. Mr. Paul’s body was found at the same location at 2:41 a.m. the following morning.

According to the autopsy report, death was attributed to hypothermia due to acute alcohol intoxication. The coroner decided against calling a Coroner’s Inquest, choosing instead to conduct an Inquiry without a jury under s. 20 of the Coroners Act, and issued a Judgment of Inquiry.

In 2000 the Vancouver Police Department concluded disciplinary proceedings against two officers. One officer was suspended for two days for discreditable conduct, and the other officer was suspended for one day for neglect of duty.

In January 2002 the Police Complaints Commissioner advised the Chief of the Vancouver Police Department that, in his view, a Public Hearing under the Police Act would not be the appropriate vehicle to address the issues arising from the death of Mr. Paul, and that he would be taking no further action. He subsequently wrote to the provincial Solicitor General, recommending an inquest and suggesting a province-wide review of police response to circumstances where they detain or release people who are unable to care for themselves.

In June 2003 the new Police Complaints Commissioner released to counsel acting for Mr. Paul’s family portions of the police jail surveillance video depicting Mr. Paul’s arrival and departure at the Vancouver Police jail on December 5, 1998. Based on new information concerning the circumstances of Mr. Paul’s removal from the jail hours before his death, the Police Complaints Commissioner re-opened the Frank Paul file. In January 2004 he published Reasons for Decision in which he recommended a full public inquiry.

On several occasions the Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of Attorney General examined the circumstances surrounding Mr. Paul’s death. In each review, the Branch decided not to proceed with criminal charges against any of the police officers involved.

A video released Nov. 14 gave disturbing insight into the case of a 40-year-old Polish immigrant tasered by police at Vancouver International Airport. He was there to meet his mother, who was already living in Canada. Robert Dziekanski waited in the secure baggage area for 10 hours as his mother searched for him elsewhere.

Minutes after arriving on the scene RCMP officers tasered the man who then dropped to the floor writhing in anguish. Dziekanski shortly after. A 15-year-old Victoria resident recorded the incident on his cell phone. The video has since been posted on the Internet and viewed widely.

Robert Dziekański was a construction worker by trade, but had also worked as a miner.[4] He was in the process of emigrating from Gliwice, Poland, to live with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, in Kamloops, British Columbia.[5]

Dziekański’s flight was two hours late, and arrived at about 3:15 pm on October 13, 2007.[6][7][8] According to official sources, Dziekański required language support to complete initial customs formalities. After he completed initial immigration processing, his whereabouts between 4:00 p.m. and about 10:45 p.m. remain unclear, though at various points he was seen around the baggage carrousels.[9] Dziekański’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, had told him to wait for her at the baggage claim area but it was a secured area where she was not allowed to enter.[10] At 10:45 p.m., when he attempted to leave the Customs hall, he was directed again to secondary immigration as his visa had not yet been processed.[6][9] Dziekański’s immigration procedures were completed at about 12:15 a.m. on October 14.[6][9] After 30 minutes in an immigration waiting area, he was taken to the international arrivals reception area.[9] Cisowski had been making enquiries of airport staff since the early afternoon.[11] Airport staff told her Dziekański was not at the airport and she had returned to Kamloops at about 10 p.m., believing her son had missed his flight.[8][10]

When Dziekański left the Customs hall, he became visibly agitated. Bystanders and airport security guards were unable to communicate with him because he did not speak English.He used chairs to prop open the one-way doors between a Customs clearing area and a public lounge and at one point threw a computer and a small table to the floor before the police arrived.[12]

Four RCMP officers, Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bently, Kwesi Millington, and supervisor Corporal Benjamin Robinson, arrived and entered the Customs room where Dziekański was pacing about. They apparently directed him to stand near a counter, to which Dziekański complied but picked up a stapler sometime after being told to place his hands on a counter.[13][14][15]

Shortly thereafter, about 25 seconds after arriving at the scene, Corporal Robinson ordered the Taser to be used. Constable Millington tasered Dziekański. He began to convulse and was tasered several more times after falling to the ground, where the four officers pinned, handcuffed and continued to taser him. One eyewitness, who recorded the incident on her cellphone, told CBC News that Dziekański had been tasered four times.

“The third and fourth ones were at the same time” delivered by the officers at Dziekanski’s right and left, just before Dziekański fell.[12][16] According to B.C. Crown counsel spokesman Stan Lowe, Dziekański was tasered a total of five times.[3] Constable Millington testified that he deployed the Taser four times, but he believed that in some of those instances the probes may not have contacted Dziekański’s body.[17]Dziekanski writhed and screamed before he stopped moving.

Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson stated he then checked for a pulse, but his heart had stopped. Testimony from the other RCMP officers state they never saw anyone including Robinson check for a pulse.[18] Dziekański did not receive CPR until paramedics arrived on the scene approximately 15 minutes later. They were unable to revive him and pronounced him dead at the scene.[12]

Controversy………..

The entire event was recorded by Paul Pritchard, another traveler who was at the airport. Pritchard handed his camera and the video to police who told him that they would return the video within 48 hours. Instead, they returned the camera with a new memory card and kept the original with the video, saying they needed it to preserve the integrity of the investigation. They claimed witness statements would be tainted if they viewed the video before being interviewed by police.[19] Pritchard went to court to obtain the video, which he then released to the media on November 14, 2007; three television outlets paid fees to Pritchard for the right to broadcast the video.[20][21][22] After the video was made available, an RCMP spokesperson cautioned the public to reserve judgment against the police because the video represents “just one small piece of evidence, one person’s view.”[12]

Before the video was released to the public, the RCMP repeatedly claimed that only three officers were at the scene. There were actually four officers at the scene.[12] The RCMP also said that they did not use pepper spray because of the risk it would have posed to bystanders. The video, however, suggests the incident occurred in an area separated from bystanders by a glass wall. The actual location of the incident was inside the international arrivals area, which is separated by glass. Those waiting to greet arriving international passengers can view the area from the waiting lounge on the other side of the glass.[12] An RCMP spokesperson also stated that batons were not used,[16] which was also contradicted by the video.[23]

Criticism of the officers and the RCMP…….

The RCMP officers involved in the Dziekański death, Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bently, Kwesi Millington, and supervisor Corporal Benjamin Robinson, have been widely criticized for their handling of the incident. A retired Vancouver Police superintendent commented after viewing the video that Dziekański did not appear to be making “any threatening gestures” towards the police and he did not see why it became a police incident.[12] Particularly contentious is that the RCMP officers made no attempt to defuse or gain control of the situation before resorting to the Taser.[24]

It is noteworthy that in August 2007, before Dziekański’s death, RCMP changed its protocol on Taser use, suggesting that multiple Taser shocks may be recommendable under certain circumstances.[25]

The RCMP’s handling of the incident led to charges that they misrepresented the facts to portray the RCMP in a favourable light. The BC Civil Liberties Association has filed a complaint arguing that the evidence shows that the Taser was not used as a last resort and condemning the RCMP for its attempt to suppress the video and for casting aspersions on the character of Dziekański.[26] An RCMP spokesman, Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre, was heavily criticized for providing a false version of events prior to the public release of the video. He stated that Dziekański “continued to throw things around and yell and scream”, after the arrival of the police officers, which was later revealed by the video to be false.[27]

On December 12, 2008, the Criminal Justice Branch of British Columbia issued a statement, finding that although the RCMP officers’ efforts to restrain Dziekański were a contributing cause of his death, the force they used to subdue and restrain him was reasonable and necessary in all the circumstances; thus there would not be a substantial likelihood of conviction of the officers in connection with the incident and accordingly criminal charges were not approved.[28] Three of the officers remain on duty elsewhere in Canada, while the supervisor, Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson, is suspended with pay awaiting trial on charges of impaired driving causing death, stemming from the death of a Orion Hutchinson.[29][30][31]